The lawyer for one of the boys said many of the students who were suspended over the images were Asian and were just trying to shock each other.

“Taken out of that context, it definitely looks really bad,” he said.

The student – only known as C.E. – who established the private Instagram account was first suspended and then expelled.

The judge let a couple students off who did nothing but upheld the suspension for the other students and CE’s expulsion. He also denied a request to have the suspensions removed the the student’s permanent records.

“Some of the plaintiffs have tried to minimize their culpability by saying that their likes were made casually and thoughtlessly. But a plaintiff’s subjective state of mind is irrelevant,” Donato said in the ruling, adding that it only matters “whether the speech at issue interfered with the rights of other students to be secure and let alone.”

Attorney Darryl Dale Yorkey, who represents six of the students, said the ruling puts the First Amendment “under fire.”

“Where does the government’s ability to discipline you stop?” Yorkey told Courthouse News. “We live in a society where everyone has the entitlement not to be offended.”

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